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This seminar series complements Issue 51 of Forced Migration Review, published on 5 January 2016 and also titled 'Destination: Europe'.

about this seminar

One aspect of the dramatic situation of migrants and refugees in Europe is the increasing number of border deaths. In his seminal article ‘The Human Costs of Border Control’ (2007), Thomas Spijkerboer raised the question of whether this is a human rights issue. In his talk, he will address the ways in which traveller safety is addressed in three different legal systems, being that concerning air travel (in the context of the International Civil Aviation Organization), sea travel (in the context of the International Maritime Organization), and irregular travel (in the context of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). The stark contrast between the sophisticated, imaginative and innovative systems developed in the context of the IMO and especially the ICAO, and on the other hand the UNODC context, suggests that the right of states under international law to exclude aliens from their territory implies the right of the same states to exclude these aliens from their positive obligations under the right to life as laid down in international law.

about the speaker

Thomas Spijkerboer is a professor of Migration Law at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he is one of the lecturers in the master’s track on International Migration and Refugee Law. He studied law at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and from 1982 to 1986 worked as a volunteer at the Rechtswinkel Amsterdam (legal clinic), specializing in housing law. From 1986 to 1993, he worked at Advokatenkollektief Zaanstreek (lawyers’ collective), where he specialised in asylum cases. Later, he was a lecturer in Migration law at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, where he wrote his dissertationGender and Refugee Status(Ashgate, 2000; Praemium Erasmianum 2001), combining qualitative, quantitative and purely legal approaches.

Since 2000 Thomas has worked at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he established the research group on migration law, one of the largest research groups on the issue worldwide. He co-directed (together with Kees Groenendijk) the research project 'Transnationality and Citizenship: New Approaches to Migration Law' and from 2011-2012, carried out the research project 'Fleeing Homophobia. Asylum claims related to sexual orientation and gender identity in the EU', resulting in a report and an edited volume. Since 2013, he has led the multi-disciplinary research project'Border Policies and Sovereignty. Human rights and the right to life of irregular migrants'. In addition, he is the ad interim head of the NWO-funded research project 'Migration Law as a Family Matter'.